News photos gallery
Tour of Soda Creek
An audit presented to the Steamboat Springs School Board in April cited many problems with the facilities at Soda Creek Elementary School, which are a result of its age and configuration. This gallery shows some of those problems.
Judy Harris is the principal of Soda Creek Elementary School.
The pole in this first-grade classroom makes it difficult for a teacher helping students in the reading area, foreground, to keep an eye on students sitting at desks near the door.
Many teachers at Soda Creek have made creative use of the support beams in the middle of their classrooms. In this kindergarten room, students sit in pods of tables wrapped around decorated poles.
In this kindergarten room at Soda Creek, students sit in pods of tables wrapped around poles.
The music room offers another example of how support beams divide classrooms at Soda Creek Elementary School.
The music room is one of several rooms at Soda Creek that have problems with ventilation. The door in the corner is the only source of airflow, but teachers can't put the fan in the doorway because it would create a fire hazard.
Soda Creek Elementary School wasn't built to accommodate computers, but now they are part of every classroom. In the computer room, a lack of ventilation combined with the heat from several computers can make for an uncomfortably warm environment.
Students at Soda Creek sometimes meet with adults for tutoring or mentoring outside the classroom. Currently, that takes place at desks in hallways, but plans for a new school include more private meeting places.
Soda Creek has marked areas where parents drive to drop off and pick up their children. But Principal Judy Harris said that although staff members are well-organized in helping match parents with students, the combination of kids and cars is cause for concern.
